My Brother's Wife - Rory O'Neill Schmitt - Bog

At the age of 38, a not-yet-famous Edgar Degas travels to New Orleans with money from his father to save his uncle's failing cotton business. Amid the chaos of Reconstruction, he embarks on a tragic liaison with his sister-in-law Estelle Musson, "Telle."
Edgar struggles with the conflict of helping his brother René and other Louisiana relatives, pursuing his passion to paint, and hiding his passion for Telle. He reclaims his Black relatives and defies the meetings with the White League that his uncle and brother-in-law are running.
Edgar starts painting close-ups of his relatives when the postwar conditions force him to stay inside. He discovers that his brother has bankrupted his father and that his father has been thrown in jail in Paris. René is also having an affair with his next-door neighbor in his own house. Edgar tries to rescue Telle, now blind, pregnant, and failing, but conditions in New Orleans grow intolerable.
Edgar is in under the spell of his sister-in-law, who gives birth to a dying baby. The cotton business is finished. Will Edgar return to Paris and try to save his father by painting and selling pastels or will he stay and protect his beloved Telle, keeping predators and his brother at bay?